Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
How did design arrive at its current state of affairs? Design has fulfilled
many roles since the emergence of the consumer era in the 1950s.
Hauffe (1998) believes that the history of design and of culture are inter-
twined and illustrates Küthe/Thun’s 1995 model for design and society
(Fig 2.). He suggests that design history is a record of the forms of life
and dominates the history of cultural development (including technical,
economic, aesthetic, social, psychological and ecological aspects).
Today design in the ‘developed’ world, and parts of the ‘developing’
world, finds itself serving a ‘society of satiety’. In this society Hauffe
claims that self-presentation and experiential design are perhaps
beginning to find a voice in the culture of design, albeit against the
dominant corporate culture within design. Hauffe presents the model as
linear, but in the context of ‘developed’ or ‘developing’ countries it is
clearly possible that a number of ‘societies’ and ‘design models’ can
operate concurrently.
The second premise is that slow design must decouple itself from the
drivers of existing economic, technological and political thinking if it is
to deliver a new paradigm for design. It is entirely logical to predict
that appropriate economic models, technology and political models will
follow slow design outcomes since real needs will be met, rather than
those of the free market (often these market driven needs are
economically, politically, culturally and socially manipulated ‘wants’).
These key four premises call for a politicisation of the design debate.
Such a politicisation represents a unique opportunity for designers (of
all creative disciplines) to enter centre stage in the debate on
sustainable development, a position currently dominated by NGO
activists, environmental lobbyists, governments and corporate trade
organisations.
Process
Designer-maker, learned & evolved craft technologies
Outcomes
Socio-cultural well-being
Environmental well-being
Process
Learned & evolved craft technologies used by designer-makers or
design and make by a community
Outcomes
Socio-cultural well-being
Environmental well-being
Process
Designer sets ‘initial’ design and opens a series of possibilities for the
user.
Outcomes
Socio-cultural well-being
Environmental well-being
Process
Design over time, designer/nature interaction, designer as maker and
re-designer
Outcomes
Socio-cultural well-being
Environmental well-being
Process
Designer sets parameters to encourage slowness
Outcomes
Socio-cultural well-being
Environmental well-being
Process
Green design, eco-design and sustainable design principles. Designer
uses less materials and/or recycled materials and/or re-used objects
and/or low energy manufacturing and assembly. Cradle to cradle.
Outcomes
Socio-cultural well-being
Environmental well-being
Process
Proprietary knowledge and owned intellectual property rights are
relaxed to obtain the benefits of collaboration in an open source
learning environment.
Outcomes
Socio-cultural well-being
Environmental well-being
Process
Information technology is harnessed to record, store, manipulate and
display data or use the data to create a physical manifestation of the
data.
Outcomes
Socio-cultural well-being
Environmental well-being
Slow networking
Slow
www.slowdesign.org
‘Slow’ creates active real and virtual objects and tools to encourage
slowing of individual’s metabolisms. Slow is a theoretical, conceptual,
collaborative and virtual space to extend the conversation about slow
design.
Tempo
www.tempodesign.net
SlowLab
www.slowlab.net
Slow planet
www.slowplanet.org
Slow food
www.slowfood.com
Probably the mother of all slow activism, the Slow Food movement has
over 65,000 members in 42 countries. Emerging from a grass roots
desire to attenuate the spread of global corporate food businesses in
Italy, Slow Food has become a clarion call to those opposed to the
spread of these mono-cultural foods. It celebrates a quality of life
where diversity of food and drink is seen as essential for human and
environmental well-being.
Slow cities
www.slowcities.org
Thirty two towns and cities in Italy have signed up to the Slow Cities
Charter that focuses on maintaining and/or recreating local identity, a
sense of community, quality food production and environmental
improvements. Closely allied with the Slow Food movement, Slow
Cities is a way of thinking about a city’s future, engaging its inhabitants
and welcoming its guests.
Doors of Perception
www.doorsofperception.com
Thinkcycle
www.thinkcycle.com
Bonsieppe (1997) Design – the blind spot of theory, or, Theory – the
blind spot of design. Conference text for a semi-public event of the
Jan van Eyk Academy, Maastrict, April 1997.
Brand, Stewart (1999) The Clock of the Long Now, Time and
Responsibility, Phoenix, London, UK.
Cline, Ann (1997) A Hut of One’s Own – Life Outside the Circle of
Architecture, MIT, USA.
Cooper, Rachel (2002) Dseign: Not just a pretty face. The Design
Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, pp1-2.
Macdonald, Nico (2001) Can designers save the world? (and should
they try?). newdesign, Setp/Oct 2001, pp29-32.
Papanek, Victor (1972) Design for the Real World, Thames &
Hudson, UK